tanks look great as usual kien.

Also, that is a very cool chandelier.

Those smooth white panels from ikea were a smokin' idea man and they photograph really well too. Wish my house were clean enough to zoom out for room shots haha.

Nice
 

We have a Canon 40D over here... I might... MIGHT have to invest in the macro after seeing how well it does.

It is for our Graphic Design/Photography business we have.... macro might be a nice addition to the arsenal!

Olympus 6000.... I almost bought that one as well... went with the Pentax W90... might have to drop it in the tank and see what comes of it ;)


Thanks!

The Phosphate Philes
 

After using the Hana Phosphate checker I discovered that my phosphates were a lot higher than I thought they were. Using other (conventional) test kits I have a hard time distinguishing the low level colour gradients near zero. With the Hana I get an exact digital reading, cool! After a few rounds (quite a bit of trial and error) with the Hana meter I think I have the process down. One thing I learned is that there are quite a few things that can throw the meter off. Finger prints, bubbles in the cuvette, not using all the reagent (some of it ends up on the counter or stuck in the corners of its packet.. grrr!). Anyway, after seeing that my phosphate was non-zero and was actually 0.16 I started to scratch my head and wonder exactly where the phosphates were coming from. Yes, I know we introduce phosphates through various foods that we throw into our tanks but what I was really curious about was who was the greatest offender. So today I set out to answer this question and here's how it went down.

For every food product that I feed my fish I scooped up 1 teaspoons worth and dumped it into a bowl of 1/4 cup of RO/DI water.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1286685882

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1286685909

I then let the food sit all day to leech out all its phosphorus goodness.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1286685967

Top Left: Nori sheet (from Superstore)
Top Middle: Formula 1 Flakes
Top Right: Formula 1 pellets
Bottom Left: My homemade fish mush
Bottom Right: PE Misys (unrinsed)

After a few hours ( like 10 or 11 i think ) I began the testing. For each food item I purcolated the mixture to get as much fluid as possible.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1286686236

I tried to test this solution but it was way too concentrated so I had to dilute it. Instead, I drew up 2 mils of each fluid and diluted it with 8mils of RO/DI water.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1286686333

I now had my solutions that I could test and simply followed the Hana testing procedures with the control sample and reagent sample.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1286686389

===========================================

The results were not overly surprising. We all know these foods contain phosphates that are typically used as a preservative. As I said earlier, I was mostly curious about which food items had the most phosphate. To add to my disclaimer, this is NOT a scientific experiment by any stretch of the imagination. I tried my best to keep consistent with each test but there is still a huge potential for error. This really just gives me a rough ballpark idea rather than concrete evidence of anything. Having said all that, here are my results!

NB: All results in PPM (Parts Per Million). I performed 3 tests for each sample and took an average. The meter has a resolution of 0 to 2.5. Anything higher than 2.5 and it just flashes 2.5.

1. My homemade fish mush - 1.81
2. PE Misys (unrinsed) - 1.90
3. Nori (sheets from Superstore) - 2.04
4. Formula 1 flakes - > 2.5 !!
5. Formula 1 pellets - 2.3
6. Tap Water - 0.00
7. RO/DI Water - 0.00
8. Rinsed PE Misys - > 2.5 !!
9. New Salt Water (Instant Ocean) - 0.0
10. My homemade fish mush before additives - 0.33

So there we have it. Again, I can not emphasize enough, take these results with a grain of sea salt! They are not scientific. You will notice a couple of TBD up there. I plan to do a water change tomorrow so I'll be testing that mixture and post the results then. I have also rinsed the sample of PE Misys to see what difference that makes. It should be ready for me to test tomorrow morning as it is currently leeching in its bowl.

I need to buy more reagents.. :lol:

I know that this is in no way a scientific result, but I have been trying to encourage people away from flake/ pellets for two years at the store.....You can do a search for the NLS thread where I told peeps about the actively added copper sulfate listed as an ingredient.....that was a fiasco!:mrgreen:.........I equate flake food to .......well......junk food.....the problem with it in our tanks is if any of it goes uneaten, it quickly breaks down and dissolves into the water column....which feeds.....everything....that being said you just cant beat the convenience factor that a dry food provides:wink:.....

Thanks for your kick-arse, informative posts mang!:biggrin:

very interesting information. Keep it up! Cheers

Wow Kien that's awesome thanks for documenting that.

So Doug what exactly are you telling people to feed their tanks?

I feed nothing but frozen(strained/rinsed, if necessary) .......save the times when the lights are about to go off and Im like.....crap!!!!! I forgot to thaw some food:mrgreen:....

I was under the impression these frozen foods (mysis/brine etc) were sorta like filler and not a complete diet for the fish? I currently do feed both but have been thinking of the pellets as my primary. My fish do consume all of them though...

maybe I should clarify:biggrin:.....I feed a "special" blend of food which I dont rinse, because it has garlic and selcone added to it.....I feed a brine/mysis shrimp combo which I strain and then soak in selcon.....and I also feed the "ocean plankton" (which the shop carries:mrgreen:), that I strain(no vitamins added as this is as close to a natural diet as most fish will get):wink:....